The Granite Fountain
by Day of Diana
Summary: Bugs? Definitely not her favorite creatures in the world... but she can learn to live with them. ShinoxSakura, a pair that needs more lovin'.
1. Sakura Meets Shino

_Hey hey hey! Hi, everyone! Alright, so, welcome to my newest Sakura pairing story! Yay! _

_This is gonna be a ShinoxSakura story. Uh-huh. I've been reading lots and lots of those, and I wanted to make mine own, because there seemed to be a considerable market for it. And the ShinoSaku pairing needs more love anyways. :) Enjoy the story! _

**DISCLAIMER:**___I do not happen to own any sexy Naruto characters, no. Why? Are you selling one? _

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There was nothing like waking up four seconds before her alarm went off. Yeah. And then the alarm went off. Gods, she hated that sound. Scrambling for the stupid, green-numbered digital clock on her bedside stand, she wrapped her fingers around it and didn't pause to reflect on what she was doing before she threw the cold metal box straight into the wall. If she had been more awake, the alarm clock would have passed the wall, entered the hallway, and probably slammed into the bathroom where it definitely would have messed up the peeling wallpaper. Not that she would have been angry about that. That wallpaper… she needed to replace it one of these days.

Sakura laid her head back against her pillow and blearily rubbed her eyes. It was a medic-training day, meaning she would have to hop a few roofs over to the hospital before Tsunade went berserk and started throwing things (or much worse, people) around. There was nothing to do now but slowly rouse herself from the strong pull of more sleep, get dressed fast, and eat a quick breakfast along the way.

For a second, Sakura almost wished she was back at her parents' house and being yelled at to get up. Her own will-power was slightly less motivated to spring her out of bed and make her do a cartwheel, which Lee said he did every morning. But when she insisted she could now live on her own at age 15, her parents had reluctantly agreed to leave their only child in Konoha and return to their original home in a small town near the Gold Forest of Fire Country. Her father had retired from ninja duty in his early forties, and her mother had never been involved with the shinobi line of work. They sent her letters every week, to which she responded regularly. It had been a few months since she last saw them, and Sakura felt that it would be time soon to visit them again, or have them visit her. She missed them, but she wanted to live a more independent life. Most of the ninja in her year, excluding those who came from large clans, such as Shikamaru, Hinata and Shino, had already separated from their parents' households anyway. Who was she but to follow the trend?

It was getting late. She could sense that the sun's rays were going to seep through the thin curtains covering the windows any minute now. There was no more time for snuggling into her futon and wishing that time would stop so that she could get some more shut-eye. She'd just have to remember to go to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight, and not stay up until three in the morning reading that surprisingly very interesting report on the Aburame clan's kikaichu and how the bugs live inside the host body in intricate but unobtrusive tunnels. The text had been so fascinating to her that she contemplated asking the Aburame in her year, Shino, if she could perform simple surgery on him just so she could see the channels in a host body for herself. Unfortunately, or so she thought, the report had provided no pictures showing the kikaichu or how they lived in the host body.

Hugging the blankets swathing her and the small futon she lay on, Sakura rose from her bed and crossed to the dingy closet about three feet away. Really, for all the money she was paying to rent the apartment, she thought she should be entitled to more space! Maybe if she saved up a bit more she could buy a townhouse or something. Unlike Naruto, who had been living in his tiny apartment for years, _she _could actually manage money. That, however, didn't mean that she wouldn't refuse to pay for the ramen when they went out to eat together.

Quickly slipping out of her night clothes and into the trainee medic uniform, she turned to the full-length mirror and looked herself over. Oh gods, she hated this outfit. Other doctors and nurses and whoever else who knew what the clothes denoted could be so condescending. That, and they didn't trust her with a patient for a minute. Ugh.

"Just a few more months," Sakura quietly said aloud to the mirror, watching her lips shape the words as she spoke them. "Then we'll see who'll be fetching whose coffee."

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Getting to the hospital was never difficult. There were very few non-ninja citizens who complained about the shinobi using the rooftops of their apartments or houses for quick trips. The ones who _did _complain had their roofs painted a bright red color, courtesy of the council; people who Sakura had believed didn't have an ounce of humor before they ordered ninja to splash blood-red paint on the roofs of the homes of the citizens. The red color was supposed to warn shinobi away from jumping over those roofs, but Sakura believed there was an ulterior motive behind the shiny paint. If Konoha ever had another air strike, those mockingly bright roofs would be the first to go.

Running along the familiar rooftop path to the hospital, Sakura spied another nin a couple hundred yards away from her taking the same way. This was curious, as Sakura had never seen a fellow ninja going to the hospital at six o'clock in the morning in the same direction she took. The mysterious shinobi didn't seem to be carrying anyone or anything, and if he was injured or had an urgent message to deliver to the Godaime, he would not be running at the pace he was running.

Squinting at him didn't help her efforts to make out who he was. Mentally shrugging, Sakura decided that if he was heading towards the hospital she would find out soon enough, as her destination was coming up fast.

A few minutes later, she skirted to a stop on top of a squat tea shop and jumped smoothly to the ground. At about the same time as she was picking a fluff of cotton out of her hair, she heard a soft thump beside her and pivoted reflexively to see the ninja who had been following a similar rooftop path stand up from his dismount. Her eyebrows raised a little bit as she took in his appearance and found she recognized him. He turned to her, gave a small nod, then started walking to the entrance of the hospital.

Sakura hesitated for a second, then followed after Aburame Shino.

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_Short enough for you? This is just the beginning! Review if you think the pairing ShinoSaku needs a little more TLC! _


	2. Shino Speaks Quite Formally

"Hey," Sakura called a little loudly, catching up to Shino as he was opening one of the front doors. "Good morning."

Shino turned his whole body to her as best as he could while he held open the door with one arm. He bowed his head and said softly in a deep monotone, "Good morning."

Sakura, bemused by Shino's overly formal greeting, stepped inside of the building as he politely continued holding open the door for her.

"Thank you," she said to him as he came inside as well, allowing the doors to close on their own.

His voice held a faint note of confusion when he replied, "For what purpose do I receive your gratitude?"

Sakura just stared at him. She'd never realized that Shino spoke so properly. Whenever she was hanging out with others from her year in a restaurant or shopping centre, she'd almost never heard him speak. She recalled that he always seemed to put a little distance between himself and the group, only talking to the members of his team. He rarely joined in group conversations, and seemed to always leave early, even if Kiba and Hinata stayed on. Sakura wondered if he even knew her name.

"It was nice of you to hold open the door for me," Sakura finally answered, putting her hands behind her back and smiling.

"Ah." She heard Shino say. It was difficult to gauge his reaction to her reply, because even in the warm corridor of the hospital he had on his blue-blocker glasses and heavy grey coat that covered most of his head and hid his face up to his nose. She decided he was satisfied with her explanation.

"Do you mind if I walk with you?" It was a split-second decision. After all, he didn't seem to be in any hurry and she now had a chance to talk to him about his kikaichu. And it was a somewhat long trek up to the fifth floor from here. Sometimes, when she arrived here in the mornings on training days, she would half-wish she had a partner with whom she could talk to. But then she would remember what that would mean for her, having to share the title of the Godaime's prodigy, and she would shake her head to rid herself of the lonely thoughts. It did paint a pretty sad picture, she could imagine. A small, pink-haired girl walking alone down an industrial hallway, looking back over one shoulder. A real snapshot for the depressed kunoichi calendar. She'd be the month of March.

"You desire to accompany me to the fifth floor?" Shino asked. He sounded a bit surprised. Sakura couldn't really blame him though. She didn't think they'd ever spoken one-on-one. But this was perfect, as he had revealed that they were going to the same floor.

"Sure. Actually, I want to talk to you about something." Sakura began walking down the hallway and Shino followed her, matching her stride even though he had longer legs. He was, Sakura thought, about five inches or so taller than her.

"I was reading a medical journal last night and I came across a section about your clan." Sakura turned her face to him as they walked, but he was staring straight ahead. Someone apparently didn't know about social courtesies. Or maybe his grey hood was muffling his hearing. Either way, Sakura frowned. She continued. "It was very interesting, from a medic's point of view, anyway," she allowed herself a small chuckle. "It would've gone straight over my head if I wasn't a medic."

She was about to say what the text had primarily discussed and ask one or two of her more pressing questions when he spoke.

"You are in training to become a medic ninja?" And now he finally turned towards her. Though she couldn't see three-quarters of his face, she could imagine his expression to be a mix of respect and surprise. Not that many nin qualified to become medics in the regular facilities _and _in the field. But Sakura was more preoccupied with the fact that Shino hadn'tknown she was a trainee medic. She'd been training with her mentor for almost five months regarding medical skills. Was Shino really this far out of the loop?

"Yeah, and I have been for some time," she said hesitantly. She wondered if he would think she was rude if she asked him when the last time he'd gotten out of the house was. She decided against it, not wanting to offend him.

Shino bowed his head for a moment, then faced forwards again, not bothering to look at her while she tried to make conversation with him. Maybe he was uncomfortable with doing such a thing? Sakura knew Hinata almost never looked directly at people she was talking to because of her extreme shyness. And though Ino and Sakura had tried one night to help the girl become more outgoing, they'd only made her condition worsen, completely by accident, of course. That party was a night to forget…

She decided she could always ask a more open Aburame for a thorough explanation of the clan's practices with their kikaichu. Surely there must be one around Konoha willing to divulge. She could wait.

Sakura and Shino reached the open-air stairwell and, after polite insistence from Shino, Sakura started to climb it, Shino coming after her.

When they reached the top floor Sakura expected they would part ways, but as Sakura turned right, Shino mimicked her, and together they walked down the hallway.

Sakura had given up hope trying to make small talk with the silent boy, but now she had an idea. His purpose here should get him talking. Obviously, he had been summoned by the Hokage, as nothing existed down this hallway except Tsunade's hospital office. Apart from being the Godaime, she was also the Chief of Medicine and Surgery, ambitious jobs both of them. Though she spent less time at the hospital and more time boozing or snoring at her desk in Konoha's tallest government building, Tsunade knew how to get down to business when she needed to. The second-in-command at the hospital, Dr. Fujioka Soma, stood in for Tsunade whenever she was absent. Which Sakura hoped wasn't the case today.

"So…" Sakura started, somehow causing Shino to edge a little farther away from her. She ignored this. "What are you here for, anyway? Mission?"

Shino remained silent for quite a few minutes as the two continued down the corridor. Sakura gave up talking to him all over again. Then he did speak.

"My purpose here interests you? The Aburame clan received a call of distress at approximately 5 o'clock this morning from Doctor Fujioka Soma. He reported an extensive growth of honey-bees and their hives had taken up residence in the revered Hokage's office. He asked for an agent to come dispel the hives and transport the honey-bees to a safe habitat."

Sakura was sure Shino would never speak so much in the future to her again. Also, the thought of Dr. Fujioka, a strong, very intelligent man being frightened by bees made her giggle. Shino, because of the way he spoke, made the matter seem a lot less urgent than it probably was.

"What a fun way to start the day," Sakura said, grinning. "Getting rid of a bunch of bee hives."

"You find such a mission amusing? It may not seem like enjoyable work to others, but the Aburame clan is glad to be of assistance to Doctor Fujioka and can provide comfortable housing for the honey-bees so that such a circumstance will not occur a second time."

He was starting to sound like Neji. So stiff and proper. "You guys breed bees too? What do you use them for?"

"The Aburame clan supplies Konohagakure's honey products and the stingers of deceased honey-bees." Sakura was surprised when he visibly shuddered, as if the thought of dead bees bothered him deeply. "The stingers are studded in gloves and are exceptional weapons, so I'm told."

"I've never heard of such things," Sakura told him. "Are they still being developed for arms use?"

Shino responded immediately. "No, the weapons are out on the general market. However, they are not sold in Konohagakure."

"Not sold here? But…where, then? Our allies' towns'?"

Shino never answered her, or maybe he was about to but decided against it, because the two had arrived at the Chief of Medicine and Surgery's door. Of course, just Sakura's luck, Dr. Fujioka was the one behind it today.

The door flew open, and a rather tall man with shoulder-length blond hair ushered them both in.


	3. Formally We Meet Dr Fujioka

_Thank you to all my lovely readers who've read this far into the story! I was surprised by the response; many of you just click on story alert and don't bother to review! Well... do you feel like reviewing now or later? It's your choice. Choose wisely. Kidding! Ha ha, what a comedian I am. Read on, do! _

**DISCLAIMER: **_All of the sexy characters in here are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo and Funimation Animation Studios. Well, except Dr. Fujioka. He's all mine. :)_

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Dr. Fujioka had worked at the hospital for some years before being appointed second-in-command by Tsunade personally. He was not a ninja anymore because of a rare disease that eventually caused the body to cease chakra production, which Konoha was still studying fervently. However, he still studied and worked with ninja-related diseases, wounds, and mental health; dealing mainly in medicine, not surgery. Sakura had worked with the man before and was impressed by how much he knew about a ninja's body, even though his body was no longer built like one.

"Please, come in quickly," Dr. Fujioka said in a rattled, high-pitched tone. Apparently, he _was_ frightened of the insects that had invaded the office walls.

His elbow bumped Sakura's collarbone as he passed her, and he turned on the spot, hopping up and down with anxiety, his hands clasped near his sternum.

"Sakura! I'm so sorry. I didn't… thought you were with… this young man here! Are you the one who the Aburame clan sent?" Dr. Fujioka's voice was picking up speed and pitch. Sakura, who had never seen the doctor this nervous before, was feeling a tad jumpy herself.

Shino nodded smoothly while slowly turning his head on the spot, scanning the walls and listening for the tell-tale thrum of the tiny intruders.

"I heard them, right over there! Over there, right! Next to the cabinet!" Dr. Fujioka swung a long, trembling arm to the left of the oldest, dirtiest filing cabinet, pointing at a spot marked with a water stain. With his other hand curling fingers into his mouth, his wide, powder blue eyes fixed almost with a horrified look at the place. Sakura could only stare at him. Shino turned his attention to the section of wall Dr. Fujioka was gesturing to.

"Dr.—" Sakura began, only to have her response cut off by Dr. Fujioka's palm slapped over her mouth. His other hand twisted itself into her hair.

"Shhh! Sakura, they might hear!" The man whispered loudly into her ear, breath coming in short, faint puffs.

Shino walked over to the wall, unconcerned. He stopped in front of it, then, with the terrified pair watching him, knocked three times and cocked his head, listening intently. Dr. Fujioka's hold on Sakura tightened. Because he did not have any chakra, Sakura barely felt his arms, but noted that they had slipped down from her face and encircled her torso. One of his fingers was resting on the dip in her clavicle.

Shino shook his head, as if clearing it of something. He looked to Sakura and the doctor. "There is nothing behind this wall. No honey-bees, Doctor Fujioka."

Before Sakura had time to exchange a bewildered glance with the doctor, he picked her up and with surprising strength swung her around in a weird kind of victory dance.

"Oh happy days!" he cried, setting Sakura on the ground after she kicked him in the shin. "It must have just been my imagination. You may go now, young Aburame. Oh, but wait! The Hokage respectfully asks you to take this to your clan leader…Aburame Shindoh, yes? Oh, and please, give my regards to your cousin Aburame Shinsa. Her leg is healing up nicely?"

"Yes. Shinsa thanks you for your medicine and healing prowess," Shino said, affecting a soft, indifferent tone. He took the scroll from Dr. Fujioka. "In the name of my ancestors before me, I respectfully accept this scroll, from the Godaime, to deliver to Clan Leader Aburame Shindoh."

'With all of his formalities,' Sakura thought, 'it's a wonder he slouches when he walks. But only a little bit. I guess the Hyuuga Clan and the Aburame Clan are more similar than I thought.'

Shino left quietly and closed the door. Sakura heard his faint footsteps until they reached the stairwell. Then… her hearing needed a check-up.

"Sakura! I'm glad you're here today!" Dr. Fujioka startled Sakura by placing his hands on her shoulders and steering her into a seat, then wheeling the seat up to his desk. She openly stared at him while he picked his way to the desk chair and seated himself. He returned her stare for a minute, then laced his fingers together under his chin and began tapping his foot.

"Dr. Fujioka, where is Tsunade-shishou? She told me she would be here today."

"Ah, yes, that. The Hokage is here, she's just in surgery. One of those ANBU injured himself quite well. Snapped his femur clean in half. Both of them, actually, I think…"

Sakura watched as Dr. Fujioka played with a long strand of his hair before reaching for a stack of files and a thick book.

"She asked me to remain here until you arrived, kind of late," he surprised her by wagging his finger at her. Usually Dr. Fujioka was not so cavalier. In fact, though he was extremely competent at his job and had earned Sakura's respect long ago, the man barely smiled or joked. Tsunade once told her that though he wasn't a social butterfly, he got his job done, and that's all that was important to her.

"But now you're here and I can go home~" This last syllable was drawn out and up, his voice taking on a singsong tone. Sakura wondered if Dr. Fujioka was drunk. Also, she was pretty sure that his shifts for the week started early in the morning and ended late in the night. There was no way Tsunade would have let him off.

"Dr. Fujioka, I don't think—"

"Nonsense, Sakura! All people can think! Why, I tell Tsunade every day that you have mental abilities that are on par with that young Nara boy… you're very smart!"

Sakura could feel heat creep up her collar. Dr. Fujioka gazed at her dreamily, a far-off look in his eyes.

"You remind me of someone I like very much, you know. And I just realized who you looked like a couple of hours ago." Dr. Fujioka said, his voice soft, fluid; like slow-melting caramel. He reached across the desk to bring Sakura's hands into his own.

She was startled by his behavior but only reacted by shooting him a puzzled glance. Then she looked at their entwined hands. It was awkward, because his hands were so much larger than hers, and so soft, too. Her hands were rough, and she wasn't wearing her black gloves that she was fond of donning in combat.

"Do you know who you remind me of?" Dr. Fujioka asked, eyes becoming half-lidded, thick blond lashes fluttering against the bottom of his violet eyes.

"No," Sakura said, wanting nothing more than to jump up and run from this office. Some alarm in the back of her mind was ringing, and she sensed something lurking beneath Dr. Fujioka's exterior. Something dark…foreboding. Dangerous.

"My nephew, Kabuto." Dr. Fujioka tightened his grip on her hands as she tried to gently pull away from him. "You know my nephew Kabuto, yes?"

It had been years since she had heard that name, but she said instantly, "Yakushi Kabuto?"

"The very same! So you do remember him!" Dr. Fujioka now leaned close to Sakura, hovering over the desk. Because he was so tall, she had to crush herself into the chair to avoid his long tendrils of blond hair.

"It's very sad, really, what he did. My brothers and I miss him very much, you know. He's such a bright boy," he said, suddenly sitting back into his chair and bringing Sakura with him. Now she was almost pressed against his chest, the ends of her short pink hair touching the collar of his jacket. He let her go not a minute later and she hastily sat back in her seat.

"Dr. Fujioka, I'd better go—"

"No, dear girl! The Hokage has very important business to attend to, she told me to… to study with you! Yes, that's it! Let's start with… which chapter are you on in this book?"

For five hours, Sakura sat down with the scarily overenthusiastic Dr. Fujioka, trying to convince him that she had not studied the chapter about muscular dystrophy while he demonstrated a child limping and moaning about because of painful muscles and other such muscular diseases, which shinobi did not commonly get.

Finally, Tsunade arrived and Sakura tried her best not to run up to her master and fling her arms about her waist. By this time, Dr. Fujioka was having Sakura write a medical report about the workings of tendons in the arms and legs, something she found very fascinating, but was not able to enjoy properly because of the inadequate explanations of Dr. Fujioka and the boring textbook.

Tsunade seemed surprised to find Sakura in her office, though, and told her so. Sakura replied that Dr. Fujioka had kept her there all day. He had now been gone some twenty minutes doing rounds.

"He's been acting so weird, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura said, stretching her arms above her head and rotating her wrists, sore from two hours' worth of writing.

"Weird how?" Tsunade asked as she unloaded fifty pounds of beakers onto one of her assistant's desks. It was a new shipment from the Wind Country. When frustrated in the lab, Tsunade tended to take her anger out on the scientific instruments around her, resulting in many purchases from a happy Sunagakure, pleased to provide the finest (and most expensive) quality of glass made from the sand there.

"He's been in a great mood all day. He's been _smiling_, Tsunade-shishou. I don't think I've ever seen him smile."

Tsunade half turned from the beaker box to stare incredulously at her student. Bright as Sakura may be, she was a worry-wart, and that often distracted her from her work. Tsunade gave her a half-shrug and then split open the tape of the box with one sharp painted nail.

"I don't see any cause for concern, Sakura. Now, what have you been doing all this time?"

Sakura shifted guiltily in the office chair. She looked down at her half-finished medic report.

"Studying muscular diseases. And Dr. Fujioka asked me to write a report for him about some of it."

Tsunade started unpacking the beakers. "Thought you hadn't reached that chapter yet."

"I…I haven't. That's another thing about Dr. Fujioka today, he seems really… jittery." Sakura stood up and walked over to Tsunade. She took some beakers out of the box and placed them on the desk. "Like, flighty."

"I don't think you should worry about it, Sakura. Here, could you take these charts down to room 421 and get the patient's blood sample? After that, come back to my office and we'll go down to Training Ground Number 5. Kakashi and I are going to test your genjutsu abilities today. Be ready." Tsunade smiled at her student and handed her the charts. Sakura gave her master a weaker smile in return and quick-walked out the door.

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_Isn't Dr. Fujioka a strange guy? Do you like him? I know there are bunches of bishounen in 'Naruto', but I figured we all could use one more. He's nothing compared to Itachi though... mmm... Uchiha... *drools*_


	4. Dr Fujioka is replaced by Kakashi

_Hello there! I must say, after such a positive response to the story (mostly coming in the form of story alerts), I feel compelled to kiss you all and hand out cookies and candies to all of you! You must be hungry, reading this far, after all. Thankies for reading, and don't forget to review! _

**DISCLAIMER: **_Do do do do do do... a do do do do do do! AHO! (And that's how you know I don't own Naruto!)_

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After taking a blood sample and vitals from the patient, a male ninja who had returned from a mission with a strange rash, she turned down his bedding and was asked if she could give him a sponge bath, but she told him another nurse would be in shortly to take care of him. Taking his look of disappointment to mean that he really wanted be clean right now, she contemplated taking on the task. After seconds of internal debate, she decided against it, as it would make her late for her training. Kakashi and Tsunade together were a formidable team, and she did not want to waste one second of potential experience.

Bidding good afternoon to the patient, Sakura started swiftly down the hallway and up the stairwell to Tsunade's office once more. It was nearly 1 o'clock, so Sakura and Tsunade shared a lunch of pre-made bento boxes Shizune had delivered while Sakura was with the patient. Then together, student and teacher made for the training field.

Arriving and seeing, no surprise, that Kakashi was not there yet, Tsunade drilled Sakura through push-ups, laps, stretches, weight-lifting and dodging before, at 3 o'clock, Kakashi made his grand entrance and was launched into a flurry of angry fists as Tsunade and Sakura sought to teach him a lesson for not being punctual. How did he even survive in the shinobi world if he didn't have one of the most important skills: time management?

Finally, at around 4 o'clock, Sakura readied herself to battle her two teachers in genjutsu. Tsunade herself was quite capable with genjutsu, but this was definitely Kakashi's area of expertise. They faced each other on three ends of the field, forming a triangle. Kakashi and Tsunade would be working together against Sakura.

Sakura supposed the triangle formation was to psych her out, but she knew the beginnings of this move. Tsunade would come at her with fists flying and Kakashi would disappear underground and then come up behind her while she was dodging or exchanging punches with her master. Then, with a suitable genjutsu prepared and ready at any moment to catch her between the eyes, that would be the end of round one.

But it didn't happen exactly as her foes planned. Tsunade, of course, initially distracted her, but she quickly dispatched three clones to keep her master busy. Then she travelled underground, meeting Kakashi halfway across their territories and performed quick hand signs of a new genjutsu she had secretly been developing on her own. When she'd tried it on her mother's cat and then her mother, it had worked perfectly. Using the element of surprise, she enfolded Kakashi into a radical dream-like world, replete with flying monkeys. While Kakashi burst up from the ground to tackle the illusions, Sakura raced around the training grounds, avoiding Tsunade's genjutsu and taijutsu attacks. Leaping from tree to tree, she made two more clones of herself (the three from before had been exterminated) and dropped behind a bush to watch her clones' performance. They were knocked out in seconds, and Sakura waited, nerves tingling, for Tsunade.

But Tsunade did not come into Sakura's line of vision. Sakura waited for some 20 seconds, then she kicked herself. Of course, Tsunade would go to free Kakashi from the unexpected genjutsu. Damn! She had meant for her new jutsu to keep him occupied while she beat her master. Okay, new plan, new plan…

What the heck was that! Ah! Oh gods, spiders! Spiders everywhere! Crawling up her legs, down her arms, weaving stringy webs into her hair! Poison! Poison injected into her veins! Her vision clouding, Sakura pressed her hands together and gasped, "Release!"

Head clearing, she whipped around to spy Kakashi jumping up higher, into a tree. Damnit! He must've… grrr! "Kakashi-sensei, you boil my pudding!" Sakura bit out angrily. She heard quiet laughter to her left. Anger flaring, she turned to her right. There he was, crouched, sharingan eye uncovered. She could sense one more of him somewhere near her. But this one was probably the real one. His clones couldn't produce high-quality nightmares, so he left it to himself, most of the time.

Sakura smirked at him. "Having fun, are we?"

"Never at your expense, Sakura." said a voice from behind her. Eyes widening, she saw the clone in front of her poof into smoke and understood. Kakashi then roughly turned her around, but with her eyes shut tight, he couldn't get to her sight.

"You know, an enemy like Uchiha Itachi would cut your eyelids off if he needed to," Kakashi slammed her front-side against a tree and she let out a gasp of surprise. She hadn't expected him to do that; Kakashi rarely fought too roughly, physically, with her in these mock battles. She felt him behind her, one arm locking her in place while the other was held against her back, pressing her against the tree. What the hell was he trying to do? Suffocate her? It wouldn't work this way at all.

"That'd be stupid of him," Sakura said, trying to twist out of Kakashi's grasp, but he was holding her there… holding her there! He must be waiting for Tsunade! Oh, quick, quick Sakura! Her master might punch through the tree or be performing the hand seals to a very complicated genjutsu. And with her arms pinned behind her back by Kakashi, Sakura could not escape using genjutsu.

She continued her train of thought from Kakashi's reference to Uchiha Itachi. It might distract him so that he was not prepared for Tsunade's signal when she rejoined the fight.

"Without eyelids, a human cannot blink. If a human cannot blink, his eyes dry out in minutes, and then the sharingan would be rendered useless. Granted, the human would not be able to see and be in a horrible amount of pain, but Uchiha Itachi would've lost his primary weapon in the fight," Sakura said, as she built up chakra in her fists.

"Very good. You should work for the Investigation Bureau." Kakashi loosed her arms from behind her back and pulled them to her front. Fists pinned again and plan now unraveling as she had no way to reach Kakashi with her punches of doom, she laid her head against the tree in a moment of defeat.

To keep her in place, Kakashi mashed his body against hers, and she could feel his entire front as well as he could feel her entire back. Even their ankles touched each other. How many minutes had it been now? Probably only one. Her master was taking a long time. Wait! Be ready to move when Kakashi releases her. This was a trick. A strategy. If they made her wait for a long time, they would expect her to cool down and lose focus of the fight. Then BAM, they would defeat her. But she would stay alert! Haha!

She could barely feel Kakashi's breath on her neck, filtering out through his mask. His pectoral muscles were putting all they had into holding her in place, and though her chest was squashed against the tree, she had no trouble breathing. But for some reason, her navel to the top half of her knees wasn't being held by Kakashi's body. She was right up against the tree anyhow, but she could freely move her bottom and thighs any which way she wanted. His hold then continued after the bottom half of her thigh, cutting off her circulation from the backs of her knees to her heels. Which meant she could still wiggle her toes. Fabulous.

Then she hit upon an idea. A wonderful, horrible, creepy and evil idea. But… she was fifteen years old. She never took any missions that could end up with her using her body in a sexual way as a weapon. But it couldn't be very hard. 'I mean, he obviously didn't press up against my butt for a reason. Other than that it would have been totally inappropriate, him being my teacher and all (however, real enemies had never tried to defeat her using sexual advances) [thank the gods for that], it could be that he would eventually become sexually aroused and thus distracted from the goal.'

As soon as she thought this, she felt disgusted with herself. She had no right to picture a… um… scantily dressed Kakashi the second after that thought was completed. Besides, he probably never thought of her that way. But… a weapon was a weapon. This was a no holds barred game. She wanted to win this, badly. And if Kakashi messed up, he would never hear the end of it from Tsunade, and Sakura would be awarded teasing rights as well. However… would this impair their relationship, possibly for a long time? Jumping suddenly in his books from cute student to sex-crazed maniac might frighten her sensei away from her forever. Was this a risk she was willing to take?

'Well… some scars do fade with time,' said a small voice somewhere in the back of her mind. 'And false scars always do.'

'You're right, voice in my head who sounds a lot like me,' Sakura agreed. 'I can always explain why I chose to do this…'

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_Cliff-hanger! Mwahahaha! Oh, don't be so surprised. Not about the cliff-hanger, about the fact that I chose to put a little KakaSaku in here! Oh yeah... who's up for that in the next chapter? I must say... 8D I certainly am! Woot woot. Review? Just click on that button with the green lettering below. _


	5. Kakashi is Mysteriously Gone!

"Sakura," Tsunade said when they arrived back at Tsunade's office some time later. "That tactic is, well, not necessarily forbidden in training with teammates, but the council and I prefer if shinobi didn't use their bodies in training against each other in any way that is sexual."

Tsunade took a seat behind her desk, which left Sakura standing, flooded with shame and disgust at what she had done. Kakashi had seemed truly, not frightened exactly, but definitely wary of the way she used her body against him. She used the only means possible to escape from what, in the real world, would be deemed a seemingly fatal situation. It was a simulation. And the knowledge she acquired, wasn't that worth the price she paid for it...?

No. No, it wasn't.

Tsunade was speaking again.

"This isn't a warning, Sakura. I think it's going to take some time to let Kakashi get used to the idea that his student is willing to use such deviant techniques against him. Konoha does not encourage such things at all, and it would be wise not to try it again."

Sakura bowed her head. She hated when Tsunade reprimanded her, and it was even worse when her master scolded her in such a cold and indifferent monotone.

She heard Tsunade shifting through some papers on her messy workspace. Apparently, their talk was done. But the Godaime hadn't dismissed her yet.

Sakura contained her sigh and instead let it out inside her head. If she was lucky, she might be able to apologize to her sensei when she saw him in ten years, if even then. When Kakashi wanted to disappear from sight for a while, he could stay invisible for months at a time, even in Konoha. Hopefully, he wasn't too scarred by her stupid antics and would let her say sorry to him. But that probably wouldn't repair their relationship. Gods damn it! Why? Why had she done something so… so idiotic! Something that was more Ino's style than hers! Gods… gods damn it.

Cursing the gods made her feel a little better, but she knew that all the blame still rested on her shoulders. She wished she knew where Kakashi's apartment was. Maybe she could snoop through the tax files later to find the address? Ugh, that made her feel even sicker. But what could she do? If she left the apology run overdue because Kakashi couldn't face her and she couldn't find him, then what? What would their relationship turn into?

She looked up sharply when Tsunade muttered a particularly obscene expletive.

"Dr. Fujioka was supposed to have this delivered this morning! Oh, damn it. Sakura!"

Sakura sprang to attention, pushing thoughts of Kakashi and her shame deep into the filing cabinets of her mind, to be sifted through later. Right now Tsunade was pissed about something, and while a contributing factor had to be Sakura's clueless actions, a bigger problem had apparently arisen.

"This is a very important scroll that the Aburame Clan's leader, Aburame Shindoh, requested yesterday. You need to take it to the Aburame compound at once. Understood?"

Sakura took the scroll carefully. Something stirred in the back of her mind. Hmmm. "Lady Tsunade, Dr. Fujioka gave Aburame Shino a scroll this morning at about 6:15 AM."

Tsunade looked at her with interest. Or maybe she had just figured out something. "And you saw him do this?"

"Yes, my Lady."

"One scroll?"

"Yes."

"Ah. There were two scrolls that needed to be taken to Aburame Shindoh. This one," Tsunade held up a thin scroll with a shiny black seal on it, "is the updated version of the scroll Aburame…Shino, you said, was given. Yes, this one is the most current version. Take it to the Aburame compound immediately."

Tsunade held out the scroll and Sakura took it, then put it into the pouch at her waist. She did have one more question, though.

"Where is the Aburame compound?"

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Calling a cartographer and having him sketch out a map would have taken far too long. Going to the library wasn't an option either, as it closed at around 5:00 pm on Saturdays. So, for half an hour, Sakura rooted around in the dusty storage cellars in the basement of the government building, not finding a single thing on the Aburame clan, though Tsunade thought the information might be somewhere down there. Giving up after 45 minutes, Sakura ran back to Tsunade's office, where she was checking off various reports and such. Exasperated with her prodigy, she quickly drew Sakura a vague map to the compound and bid her to leave before her temper boiled over. Sakura had never left in more of a hurry.

As she followed the poorly drawn map somewhere to the outskirts of Konohagakure, she wondered what would be so important as to have the Hokage herself send a report to the Aburame clan. Had it to do with…war? Maybe the products the Aburame clan provided Konoha? Sakura could feel the scroll bumping against her hip. It was annoying her in more ways than one. But… Tsunade had said, 'the most current version'. So it had to do with something that changed very quickly. Daily, maybe, as there had been two scrolls that had needed to be delivered. One for yesterday that Dr. Fujioka had forgotten to send off, and one for today, perhaps. If it wasn't classified (she couldn't remember if a black seal meant classified information or not) then she could just ask Shino when she saw him next. But she never saw him, really. And he was so odd. Not that he wasn't a nice person, but… well, Sakura didn't know him enough to judge him based on his personality. His looks, however… oh, that wasn't fair. And it was the same thing she'd based her first knowledge of Naruto on. Like the clichéd saying goes: Never judge a book by its cover. And she wouldn't. Even if Shino looked a bit like a creeper.

Wasting 20 minutes going around in a circle because of a weird stop-sign Tsunade had drawn in 2 dimensions, she finally found the Aburame compound.

Set on the outskirts of Konohagakure, the compound looked dark and foreboding. But that was probably because it was almost 7 o'clock at night. It was surrounded on all sides by a rusty chain link fence (what the—was that electrocution wire on the top part? The hell? That wouldn't stop any serious shinobi), and Sakura could see with no small amount of surprise that there were actual towers that the Aburame family could station guards on. What the hell were these people hiding?

She walked around the perimeter of the place but could find no entrances. How did the Aburame family get in—or get out—of their stupid compound? Ah, well. She supposed she could hop the fence. It didn't look too difficult a jump.

There weren't any guards or marines or soldiers waiting for her on the other side. She had ripped part of her medic uniform and subsequently discovered that the electrical wire was not electric at all. Something was strange here. She'd never before been to the Aburame family households, but she knew wealthy people didn't put electrical wire or guard towers on their property for show. And there were no guards. Nor alarms or dogs, or any security. Sakura decided her best course of action was to proceed with caution. Maybe the guards were just all getting coffee. At the same time. Yeah.

Sakura looked around. Wow, the grounds were…kinda messy. She could see, despite the limited moonlight, that the lawn was overgrown and the hedges lining the sidewalk paths needed to be trimmed. There were also little hutches here and there, presumably holding different types of insects, that were in want of new wood and paint. She started walking, following the first pathway that appeared to her. In the Uchiha compound, where she used to play with…Sasuke… when she was small, the first pathway from the entrance gates led to the leader of the clan's home. In the Nara and Hyuuga compounds, the same was true. So Sakura wildly guessed that the Aburame clan had a similar set-up.

She did not sense a thing as she walked into the compound. This unnerved her. She didn't know how many people lived in the Aburame compound, but surely at least one person would have asked her what she was doing here. But she had a missive to deliver to the clan leader. And apparently, it was very important. So she continued along the walkway.

She passed numerous large buildings, noting the oddly dark coloring of the exteriors. She walked by a rather large, well-maintained courtyard in which she could hear tinny thrumming, which must've been coming from those tiny hutches planted feet apart from each other.

Then, quite suddenly, an enormous wave of power rolled over her and shocked her system. She fell involuntarily to the ground where she immediately curled up into a ball and put her head between her knees. She had never felt that amount of raw chakra of such magnitude before.

Head spinning and feeling the need to retch, she kept her eyes tightly closed and rocked herself slightly in a gentle back and forth motion. The nausea passed, though she didn't know how long it took. Still, when she stood up she had the unpleasant feeling of vertigo singing up and down her body. Standing still and allowing herself to breathe deeply in and out helped soothe her frightened body, which, aside from a few bruises already forming along her arms at several key chakra points, seemed to be fine. She tried forming a ball of green healing chakra in her hands and could still manage it. Now, to find the source of that energy.

Sakura didn't want to stray off the path that perhaps led to the clan leader's house, but she didn't really have any other options now. The pathway ended at what must be the main access point to acres of land; rolling greens hills dotted with fruit trees, ponds, and those insect huts. And even though she was probably a hundred yards away from the nearest hutch, she could hear an eerie humming coming from it. In fact, the sound was coming from the whole congregation of them.

Frustrated and a bit unnerved, Sakura turned around to face the rows of houses in the pitch dark compound again. There was nowhere else to look, there were no lights on in any of the residences as far as she could see. No movement, no chakra signatures. No human being for miles around. Surely someone…something...would spot her?

"This is so confusing. How in the hell am I supposed to do my stupid messenger job if I don't even know where this old guy is? How the hell does those messengers even do their jobs? Do we all have tracking devices on us or something? Christ!"

She turned back to the field and frowned at it. A breeze ruffled all of the grass blades in tandem, and even in the blackness of the night Sakura could see the waves of grass bowing in her direction, as if apologizing for their masters' over-the-top mysteriousness.

"Thanks a bunch, but if you can't tell me where this…" She looked at the name written on the top of the scroll, "Aburame Shindoh guy is, then I've gotta go."

She was just about to stomp away into the night when she saw a flash of aquamarine light out of her peripheral vision. She turned around and then stood stock still, waiting for the light again so that she could determine where she should start running to. It may have only been a firefly, but it also may be a clue as to where those sneaky Aburame people were. After all, there wouldn't be any reason as to why the clan couldn't have a meeting with all of its members way out in the middle of a pastoral field at like 8 o'clock at night. Other than that it was completely ludicrous and forced messengers to go out of their way to find the place. Yeah. Just to screw with them. They must hate messengers or something.

"Come on, you damned light. Flare up or I'll make you flare up. I can do that ground-punching thing now, upend all your little trees and ponds and stupid creepy insect houses. Seriously, why do you have them all over the place?"

A thought occurred to her. "Did you ever consider that one of your people might have an innate sense of entomophobia?"

The flare of light answered her, though not in any specific terms. She must have angered it, because the aquamarine light flashed brighter and higher than before. She could only hope it was for longer too.

"Aha!" Sakura grinned as she ran as fast as she could towards the light. "Not gonna get away from me, no you aren't."

She ran with the wind, bending her body to the slopes and rolls of the hills. Clearing large ponds and using the insect huts and trees as push-off points came like second nature to her. After running approximately 5 miles into the fields, she still had a ways to go before the light disappeared and she lost her target. Once a tiny pinprick, the light was growing larger in her field of vision. She was closing the distance between it and her fast.

At last she arrived. Not one bit out of breath, she nevertheless was knocked down again when another powerful blast of pure energy rocked her body and sent her eardrums throbbing and her body dry-heaving on the ground. Since she was so close to the source of the raw chakra this time, she took a good hour resting before she stood up. And that peculiar sense of vertigo assaulted her again, but she stood still and let it pass. Now she was ready to give the scroll to this guy and get the hell out of here. It was about 9 o'clock, telling from the moon's position.

Before her stood the source of the light. Or rather, the _cover_ to the source of the light. Now that she was this close to it, the circle of light emitting from underneath the large object was blinding white. She took a few steps back to look at the covering.

It was a huge fountain, towering above her by several feet. It was one of those wishing fountains, too, chiseled pools growing smaller the higher up the statue. The base was a big block of granite, but as Sakura knelt to look for a way into the hole, she saw that the rest of the fountain was being held up by five beetles. The light reflecting off of them made them seem real, alive, glittering. But they too were made out of granite. Sakura's eyes traveled up to the first and largest pool. It was a butterfly cupping its wings to make an oval shape. Her eyes followed to the second, third, fourth and fifth tiers of the fountain and found that the pattern was copied. Block of granite holding beetles, granite beetles supporting granite pool shaped with granite butterfly wings. And at the top, the moonlight made the fountain topper, a golden beetle, shine.

'Well,' Sakura thought, 'that's real nice and all, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to move and/or destroy you in order to complete my job. It's nothing personal, you know, it's just business.'


	6. Gone with the Bugs: Down the Insect Hole

_A huge thank you to all of my readers, reviewers, and people who've put this story on 'story alert', which is quite a few of you. Here's the newest chapter, and I think it may shock some of you. Also, to all of you who are asking where the ShinoSaku action is, please be patient. It's coming very soon! _

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Sakura geared up to move the fountain as gently as she could away from the opening. It looked very heavy, maybe 1,000 pounds, but she didn't want to break it…just yet. Otherwise the Aburame might not look too kindly upon her in the future. Come to think of it, the only Aburame she'd ever seen in the village was Shino. She had an absurd thought then. What if he had murdered his whole clan, just like Sas- er… Uchiha Itachi did! And now he was the only one left!

'That's just stupid. I'm sure I would've smelled blood by now…' Sakura glanced around uneasily, then resumed her task. Besides, Shino would never do such a crazy thing. And he'd always seemed sane to her.

'Yeah, so did Uchiha Itachi when you went over to the Uchiha compound to play with Sasuke.'

'Hey! Itachi was a very good liar. He was a prodigy too.'

'That's not to say Shino isn't a very good liar. Though prodigy I doubt. And for all you know, Uchiha Itachi is still alive and kicking. Don't say 'was' if you don't know if he's dead.'

'The hell? What do I care?'

'I'm just saying is all.'

'Well knock it off. I'm trying to concentrate.'

'As you wish, master.'

'There's no need to be cheeky.'

Sakura used all of her deadly might to gently push the fountain away from whatever it was hiding. She hoped the whole clan or at least their leader was down there… not Shino conducting mad scientific experiments. Painfully bright light and enormous amounts of raw, powerful chakra were kinda concerning on their own, not in the least bit because they could denote insanity.

After a few minutes of nudging the fountain this way and that, it was still not budging.

To calm herself down, Sakura sat and proceeded to perform some meditative poses that Shizune had taught her. Shizune promised her that it would work better than hitting something, or somebody. Well… it wasn't working now.

Frustrated and annoyed, Sakura did the only thing she could in this type of situation. She punched the ground. Violently.

The fountain creaked.

For a second, Sakura was afraid that she had cracked it up the middle, and when it creaked again, she rose to her feet swiftly and braced her hands and feet against the column of granite.

'Oh, please, please, please don't break in half! I swear I'll never punch anyone ever again if you don't crack in half! Oh, please!' Sakura repeated over and over again in her mind, willing the fountain to steady itself.

It creaked again, and Sakura realized it was moving _away_ from her. She was about to rush over to the other side of the fountain and hold it from that end, but then she noticed something else. Something that made her release the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Something that filled her up with bubbles of relief. The fountain wasn't about to fall over and die, it was just sliding across the opening to the light!

'Miracle of miracles,' Sakura grinned and kissed both of her knuckles, 'Violence solves everything!'

And indeed that might have been the case, had Sakura then not seen a tiny knot of bark in the ground that she had punched and was the button that moved the lever that moved the mechanisms of the fountain to uncover the secret underground tunnels of the Aburame clan.

Sakura reluctantly retracted her previous thought and waited for the fountain to totally uncover the opening. Once it did, the light dimmed, and she was staring in the face of the deepest, darkest hole she'd ever seen to date.

Of course, that was only an illusion, since the blackness was yet another covering to the aquamarine light that wasn't being hidden very well by all of these tarps. Maybe it really was a trap?

'No,' Sakura shook her head. 'This light obviously signifies that the Aburame have a secret underground chamber that Tsunade-shishou apparently doesn't know about. It's not a trap.'

She then tried to remove the black covering, but was surprised when her hand passed right through it. 'Strange…' Sakura thought. She let her hand and then arm sink deeper into the blackness, and she was almost up to her shoulder when she decided she wouldn't get to the bottom of this (literally) if she didn't go into the opening. She sat back on her haunches and thought. She didn't want to return to Tsunade-shishou with the scroll in hand and she didn't know how to summon a messenger, not to mention that this missive was very important to an influential clan. Besides, it would be embarrassing in both of those situations to explain that she was a bit scared of black holes, and she wanted to be able to keep her head up in Konoha. There was nothing for it but to go forward.

'And so down into the rabbit hole I go…' Sakura sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. The white light was still shining on the edges of the murky blackness, so she supposed there was light down there somewhere. And where there was light, there were people…? Yes.

Sakura plunged in.

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There was an odd feeling of weightlessness in her limbs and she felt as though she was upside-down and floating backwards. She opened her eyes but apparently they were already open, as all she could see was drenched in blackness. She brought her hand up to her face and was relieved when she could make out the outline of it. She was awake. Now where was she going? The black tide seemed to be carrying her without propulsion somewhere. She was flowing down a waterless river towards who knows where. And oddly, with her senses subdued, she found she was fine with whatever the blackness wanted to do with her.

She let her hands skim the blackness and touched nothing. Nodding lazily to herself, she rolled lethargically over to her stomach, and this felt like she was right-side up. Not that she could tell of course. The surrounding darkness made everything intangible.

Now that she was facing forwards (the direction the darkness was carrying her in) and was right-side up, she could see a ring of light in the distance. And the blackness must have been moving her forward quickly, because the light was growing swiftly larger. Then something snapped her out of her stupor.

Humming. Tinny humming, sounding louder and louder with every passing second. She was approaching the ring of light very fast, but the humming, once it reached a certain plateau, stayed constant in loudness. A few feet away from the light, Sakura realized what the blackness was. Insects. Millions upon millions of insects were carrying her to… it didn't matter! They must have dulled her senses for some time because they thought she was an enemy and were planning to carry her to their masters… but now did they realize she had no ill intent? How? Maybe, like horses, they could sense human emotions very accurately? Never mind.

Sakura struggled to remain calm. She didn't like insects. No, 'didn't like' was too soft a description. She detested bugs. Strongly detested bugs. She tried to keep her mind off of the creepy crawlies holding her until they delivered her into the ring of light. If she freaked out now, who knows what the kikaichu would do to her?

In the longest ten seconds of Sakura's life, she managed to keep her cool until the insects deposited her through the ring of light. Well, deposited wasn't the right word. It was more like, the bugs ejected her through the ring of light. And what she went through turned out to be a sort of curtain. She felt the smooth texture of silk as she flew through the air and landed bottom-first on a bed of hard rock. The kikaichu must have sensed her fear. Thankfully, they weren't swarming on her now to eat her.

Sakura stood up, wincing at her sore bottom. The feeling would go away in no time at all, but for the moment it stung. She looked around for the channel in which she had been carried by the bugs. It wasn't on any of the walls. Maybe it disappeared once someone went through it? This caused her a moment of panic before she reasoned she could just ask one of the Aburame if he could show her out. If there were any Aburame down here. Glancing around the underground chamber did not assuage her worries about them. But if this was the source of the powerful chakra, then there _had _to be people down here. Kikaichu alone could not generate that much chakra. She had learned from the report that they manufactured their own chakra that was very dissimilar from a human's.

She started when she heard the buzzing again. It was coming from above. So, instinctively, she looked up. Oh. And there was the hole, oozing out the blackness, the bugs. So it had been in the ceiling. Okay… well, at least now she could get out in a hurry if she needed to. Providing that the kikaichu would allow her to.

There was another, larger hole in the wall directly in front of where she was standing. Since there were no other apparent pathways that most likely led deep into the heart of whatever this place was, Sakura began walking into the hewn 'doorway' of what she decided to call 'the caves system'.

As she walked, she pondered. She knew that the military intelligence branch of Konoha's government used underground tunnels and chambers, but those were mostly for holding very dangerous criminals and using brutal methods of interrogation. Also, those tunnels, (she had seen them in pictures) were hemmed in on all sides by solid iron walls. These tunnels had nothing between them and the earth that surrounded them. Sakura skimmed one side of the tunnel with her hand as she went along. The material was hard-packed and oddly cool, though there were torches every few yards lighting the path and providing warmth to what otherwise would be a freezing tunnel. Her worries about being crushed by the tons of earth above her lessened, but her face wore a perpetual frown the whole length of her walk. She had yet to encounter anyone.

Thankfully, there seemed to be no kikaichu flying around the tunnel. And if there were, she was glad she couldn't detect or see them. Then she spotted something that she had been looking for the hours she had wasted in the Aburame compound: a person.

She sped up and called to him…or her, she was too far away to see the gender of the person, when she noticed something odd. The torches along the walls were growing dimmer the farther she went into the caves. And there was a thin sheen of water on the walls now. Had she unknowingly been traveling deeper into the earth? Sakura stopped mid-step and turned around. If she had gone down into the earth, she wouldn't be able to see the entrance which she had come through. If she had stayed on a level path, she would be very able to see the ring of light marking the doorway.

She couldn't see the entrance. She looked back to the person, who was standing quite still and seemed not to have acknowledged her in the slightest. Her eyebrows rose, and she waffled between going back the way she came to see if she could spy the entrance again, or walking further down the gently sloping pathway to ask the person where she could find the clan leader. Sakura thought, then, frustrated, dug a coin out of her pocket.

'Heads I continue, tails I turn back,' she said in her mind. She flipped the coin into the air, and it came back in her hand as heads. Curse the practice of flippism.

'Towards that creepy guy-whoever it is-I go then,' she thought. And so, stuffing the coin back into her pocket, she advanced upon the Aburame.

She crossed the space between them in no time at all.

"Hello, maybe you can help me. I'm looking for your clan leader, Aburame Shindoh." Sakura smiled in what she imagined was a pleasant way to the person, who she could now see was a male.

The man didn't say anything.

"Sir?" Sakura stepped closer to him.

The man was wearing the same clothes Shino usually wore. A dark grey hood was pulled low over his face, while his heavy grey jacket concealed his body from his thighs to his nose. His eyes were covered by those odd blue-blocker glasses. Not even his toes were visible.

"Um… excuse me?" Sakura said, her patience wearing thin. "Hey, buddy, I'm talking to you! The least you could do is look at me!"

She bared her teeth at him, a scowl mussing her smile. The man did nothing. She couldn't take any more of this mockery.

Sakura shoved the guy's shoulder hard, pushing half of his body against the wall. This was sort of hard to do, because for some reason he was very heavy… like, weighted down. She thought for a moment on why this was. And then the buzzing started.

She whipped her head back and forth as the buzzing rose up like a spitting lion-cat, incensed and ready to converge on its prey. Then she realized something: the buzzing was coming from inside the man's body. And his body was starting to leak out black ooze… bugs.

"Oh my gods," Sakura whispered on a breathless rush of air that felt as if it were being squeezed from her lungs.

The cloud of the kikaichu emptied out of the body, leaving it as no more than a pile of…skin… on the cold cavern floor. The entire colony hovered in the air for a moment, buzzing angrily. Sakura stood frozen. She couldn't feel her arms. She couldn't move her legs. Her stomach was replaced by a balloon full of tingling adrenaline.

Then the kikaichu shot backwards on a curve and she had a split second to release a breath of relief before they came straight back down to earth. Right towards her.

The balloon in her tummy burst and she felt a mad rush of life-saving energy fill her from the tips of her toes to the tip of her nose.

And so she ran.

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_Oh... another cliffhanger? Oh yeah. Well, let's see... next update comes in a few days! Review if you want the action speeded up, story alert if you want to keep the action slow and steady. Who will win the race? Mwaaaahaaaa. :D_


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